KotOR: Maul's Intervention
by Breger
Summary: A strange disturbance in the Force transports Darth Maul back in time, onto a well-known Republic flagship above the world of Taris. How will the universe be affected by this, or the bigger question: How will Darth Maul be affected? A/U.
1. Prologue

_Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, nor KotOR. I do not own any character herein, except maybe for some characters that will show up later on.  
_This story will span the entire KotOR game, with a twist. Instead of Revan, another character will take his place. This will also not end with this story, but be continued in another story, which will target the events leading up the movies, especially _Revenge of the Sith_. This person will undergo a change of character or perspective on life. You will soon know who this mysterious person is.  
This story will also change partially how things happen. Certain events might not happen, and others may come instead. The main character (Who is not Revan) will react in his way, but gradually change over time. How he will change, I leave up to you to think about. Enjoy the story, and please comment, if you like it!  
This story came to me once when I was bored. So I began to write it, and then this project of sorts sprang up.

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****Knights of the Old Republic**_

_The Sith from the Future_

Shrouded in the darkness, a figure stands, watching the Jedi Temple. The figure snarls with contempt as he eyes the Jedis entering and exiting the Temple. He fingers the cylindrical device hanging in his belt, his finger resting on the activation button, that would make a large red beam of light emit from the two ends of the long cylinder. He wishes that he could jump down amongst the Jedi and kill a few of them, but his Master denies him that pleasure. He constantly tells him that they have to be patient, that their time will come.  
But he does not wish to wait. The black- and red-tattooed warrior pulls up his cloak, obscuring his face from view, if anyone would think to look up the tall, dark building. The Jedi believed them to be extinct, but they were very much alive.  
The Sith warrior suddenly felt a disturbance in the Force, which seemed to originate from the Jedi Temple. He frowned, and grew anxious as the source came closer and closer…  
Under his watching gaze, a Padawan and his Master exits the Temple. The disturbance comes from the two men, he realizes. Something important would happen to them, and he would be involved in it somehow. Maybe he was to kill them in a way that would mark the downfall of the Jedi? Maybe. Just then his communicator began to beep. He sighs irritated, his master is searching for him again.  
"Yes, my Master?" he says quietly and respectfully as the holographic projection of a hooded man faded into life. A raspy, slightly distorted voice emanated from the mouth of the man, saying coldly: _"Lord Maul, I have detected a disturbance in the Force. I wish you to investigate it now."  
_"I also felt it Master, but it came from two Jedi in the Temple. I could feel the disturbance surround them as they left the Temple" he hisses, the sickly-yellow eyes darting between the Temple and his Master.  
The Master lifts an eyebrow in surprise, but says not much more. Maul knew this to be a game. His Master was trying to trick him into cutting communications without permit, which would ensure a punishment. But the Zabrak was not that stupid. He plays along, for now.  
"Master, I could eliminate them right now, if you but give the command" he says, the eagerness for combat underlying his tone. His Master chuckles and says: "I know how much you want to, Lord Maul. But our time is not yet. Soon, once the Trade Federation start their invasion of Naboo, we will show ourselves. Keep an eye on those two Jedi, do not lose them out of sight." With that his Master cut communications, leaving a deadly silence hanging in the air.  
Darth Maul sighs angrily, and walks away into the darkness of the building. He wanted to do battle against a Jedi, but would have to wait.  
Instead, once inside his private training area, he starts a combat simulation against some very deadly droids. As the droids activate and begin to spray blaster fire at him, he activates his double-bladed lightsaber and uses the Force to leap over the droids, cutting them down as he soars through the air. He lands perfectly, and watch the droids crumble to the ground. A smile spreads over his lips. He is a great warrior, trained to slay Jedis.  
"I will be the one to bring the Jedi down!" he whispers out in the building, the only other sound the traffic outside the training facility.  
But as he prepared to leave the building, another disturbance hit him with such force he almost fell over.  
_What in the name of the Force is this? _he wondered, as he began to search for the source. His jaw dropped, the disturbance was on that very roof! He ran outside, to battle whatever was waiting on the roof.

But when he arrived, there was nothing to be seen, but the disturbance was still there, he could feel it. As he scanned the roof, the disturbance moved itself to behind him. He snarled and whirled around, but saw nothing. Then something grabbed him, and threw him backwards, into a man-sized glowing vortex.  
As he passed into the vortex, the world seemed to be stretched until he could not bear to look any longer. After a few minutes, he passed out, and was dumped unceremoniously on a metallic floor…

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_**A/N:** Ooh, spooky. Where has Lord Maul been brought? Well, it's quite easy to tell, but still... Enjoy my little own spin-off of KotOR._


	2. The Endar Spire

**_Disclaimer:_ **_I do not own Darth Maul, Star Wars or KotOR._

Enjoy this first chapter!  
_Note: If you like this story, please leave a comment._

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He grunted with pain, as he struggled to rise. His head felt as if on fire, and the rest of his body as if been hauled through ice naked. He began to check his body for injuries, but could find none. The tattoos he had had applied to his skin made it hard to distinguish anything, however. But he otherwise felt alright. Not until he realized that his tattoos were all visible, did he understand that his tunic, cape and his other accessories were gone. Only a pair of black pants covered him. He frowned, he could distinctively remember that he had had more clothes on him just a few minutes ago.  
Pushing those thoughts away for now, the Zabrak began to look around the room with slight interest. It was grey room, with bits of purple-red. There were two bunks, one which he had been lying on. Two metallic sofas of some kind was standing in the middle of the room, with bright light emanating from the edges.When he turned to look out the window, he saw the emptiness of space. He squinted with his eyes suspiciously, he had no memory of leaving ground. Then the ship, he guessed, shook as if it was under fire. Then he saw a pair of odd-looking fighters fly past the window. They were sleek, with a small cockpit and long, thin wings with a twin set of cannons on them.  
_I guess they are the ones firing on… wherever I am,_ he thought, and twirled around just as the door across from the windows opened, revealing a blonde man dressed in a yellow and red uniform rushing towards him.  
"The Endar Spire is under attack! The ship is doomed! Let's go to the escape pods!" he yelled to the Zabrak, but before he had time to say anything else, the alien kicked him in his chest, knocking out the man's breath. As he lay gasping for air, he managed to cough out: "Are you… insane? Attacking… like that? We're on the same side! I'm Trask… Ulgo, your bunkmate! Republic soldier, like you!"  
"What? What makes you think I'm with the Republic?" the Zabrak sneered and looked down with a large, evil grin across his face, and then his face twisted into an malicious snarl as he said furiously: "Why have you brought me here? What is this ship? Answer me, or I'll gut you where you lie!" As to prove his point, the black and red tattooed warrior grabbed Trask's vibroblade and held it straight across the man's stomach, slowly pressing the blade inward.  
Keeping his eyes on the vibroblade, Trask said in a frightened tone: "What? Don't you recognize this ship? It's the Endar Spire, the ship we're stationed on! You came onboard with the Jedi Generals that arrived a week or two ago. Apparently, you were transferred from one of the Core Worlds."  
"Lies! Pathetic lies!" the Zabrak spat angrily at Trask, and pressed the vibroblade even harder against his stomach.  
_Maybe I should choke him, here and now. Then the Jedi would never know about our existence__. That would please my Master. Yet, there's something wrong, I can't help but feel as if something is out of place…  
_As he searched his feelings, he tried to call on the Force, but felt cold dread swallow him, when he realised he could not use the Force. The swirling, dark and twisting currents of the Force was not there, it was just empty, a cold emptiness of space.  
_No! This cannot be! I cannot call on the Force! I feel it, it is so close, yet I cannot use it. It is out of my reach. Why has my Master done this? Why has he shut me off from the Force?  
_These thoughts swirled through his head, as he unconsciously leaned against the vibroblade, putting more pressure on Trask's stomach.  
"No! I'm not lying! Wait, let's go to the bridge, and find out! The captain should be there, and probably the Jedi too!" Trask said hastily, hoping that the warrior would ease his grip on the weapon.  
The Zabrak looked down on the man and then growled in acknowledgement.  
_I must regain the Force, even if it means keeping this man alive for a while. But as soon as I've gotten the Force back, I will slaughter him._  
Trask rose unsteadily to his feet, and then told the warrior to take the things in the small dull-grey box close to the window, which the alien did. As soon as he had brought out the weapons, he motioned for the door, which Trask quickly opened.  
They entered a narrow path, with another door leading out to the rest of the ship which, of course, was locked, but Trask managed to pick its magnetic seal rather fast.

As the door swooshed open, Trask and the Zabrak saw a Republic soldier fall to the ground, his chest charred from repeated blaster fire.  
"That must be the advance boarding party of the Sith! Let's fight!" he called to the Zabrak, and peeked out from behind the door, firing against the four soldiers standing by the cross-junction. The lights in the clean corridor were reflecting off the armours worn by the soldiers, also mirroring the surroundings. The spaceship seemed to be coloured only in shades of grey, except for small stripes of red here and there.  
The Zabrak took a swift look at the soldiers, frowning. He did not recognize their armor, they could not be Sith. There was only two of them, his Master and himself. Or had his Master lied to him, and secretly trained troops for a large-scale war? But why had he chosen now to appear to the Jedi and the Republic? Did he not wish to wait any longer? Only a mere minutes ago had he talked about patience. These thoughts passed through the head of the warrior, as he pondered what to do.  
_It must be a test by my Master, to see if I would stay loyal to those I'__m __fighting with_, he thought and decided right then what to do. He looked at Trask, who still was firing and missing widly, and then charged right out at the Sith soldiers, wielding Trask's vibroblade and the one he'd found in the box. His yellow eyes glowing, he slashed the first trooper, watching with grim satisfaction as the man fell to the ground, howling in pain as his stomach fell out.  
Then he proceeded with decapitating the second one, stopping only to view the dead one's grimace as the protection visor broke. Swiftly he cut off the arms of the third, and then ran both the blades through the fourth one. The man gurgled, grabbing at the blades as his life faded away, and then fell to the ground with a loud thud, leaving the third one to bleed to death.  
"Come on, Ulgo. We better get to the bridge" he called out to his companion, who watched in awe the carnage the warrior had caused in a matter of seconds.  
"Wow, you're good! Have you had Jedi training?" he asked, not noticing the sudden flare of anger flashing across the tattooed face. His hands twitching slightly, he answered the man.  
"No! I have not. I'm… just good. Let's leave it at that." With those cold words, the warrior began to walk away, choosing the path that was not closed off by litter or empty walls. He mentally hit himself for almost revealing his Sith training to a man who seemingly fought them. _Unless this is some kind of simulation__, testing my patience_.

When they made it to the last set of doors before the bridge, dozens of Sith grunts lay dead across the hallways, a few of them makred with lightsaber burns. As they walked up the elevated ramp, the Zabrak suddenly stopped, grabbing Trask's arm.  
"Stay back! Someone's fighting, with a lightsaber beyond this door! I can hear it! Listen!" His dark voice hissed, and in his thoughts came the words: _I cannot intervene now, the Force is gone and I have no lightsaber. Oh how I __long__ for a lightsaber!  
_As they opened the door, the Zabrak's words were proven right, as they saw a Sith and a Jedi engaged in a deadly dance of lightsaber combat. The air was filled with the humming and clashing of the blades, and the air was lit up by the red and green blades, as they preyed on the weaknesses of their opponent.  
When he saw the Jedi, the Zabrak narrowed his eyes, itching to jump on her and strangle her, yet was surprised to see her battle a Sith.  
_So, my Master has trained one behind my back, probably to replace me. Well, he will not succeed,_ he thought grimly, mentally preparing himself to fly into the combat and help the Jedi just this once. But then the Jedi gained the upper hand, and sliced the Sith across the torso.  
He felt a small ounce of joy seeing the "replacer" fall to the ground, and was even prepared to congratulate the Jedi, when a plasma conduit in the wall exploded, scorching the Jedi's back, killing her instantly. Sparks flew from the destroyed conduit, the ground around the conduit scorched. _That worked out nicely for me.  
_Beside him, Trask swore: "Blast! That was one of the Jedi accompanying Bastila. We could have used her help!" As he said that, a group of Sith soldiers arrived, their frightening silver armor shining brightly, wielding blasters and a few grenades.  
The Zabrak bounced forward, grabbed the dead Jedi's lightsaber, and ignited it, feeling the comfortable weight in his hand.  
The Sith soldiers began to immediately fire at him, and as the Force no longer stood under his command, he knew he had to finish the fight as fast as possible, unless he wished to die. And he was dead set on living.  
He charged into the soldiers, cutting off their limbs and heads, ignoring the cries of pain, listening only to the sounds of blaster shots and the constant humming from his temporary lightsaber. He held back his fury and his skill, so that he would look a bit clumsy with the weapon, yet still effective.  
The group of soldiers soon lay on the ground, their wounds instantly cauterized from the searing beam of light of the lightsaber.  
_The colour green is quite __cool,_ he thought and smiled at the irony in the words. He was a Sith warrior, wielding a double-bladed lightsaber, or saberstaff, with the red colour symbolizing the Dark Side, and yet here he was, commenting the "coolness" of the green lightsaber.  
Trask looked at him with awe, his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets.  
"Hey, Ulgo, stop staring or your eyes will fall out. Oh, and before you ask again, I've not had Jedi training, I just guessed how to use it. It's not as hard as you might think" he commented sarcastically to the Republic soldier who quickly looked away.  
"Come on, the bridge is through this door here! They should be on the other side!" was the only thing Trask said, not wanting to stare any further at the mysterious tattooed Zabrak warrior.  
The Zabrak only laughed, and clipped the lightsaber to his belt, taking up a vibrosword, not wanting to use the lightsaber in the company of others. Ulgo had seen it partially, but he had held back, so that it would not be too apparent that he was trained, and since Ulgo was so gullible, it would not matter anyway.  
As Ulgo opened the door, two Sith soldiers instantly rushed at them, but they were easily dispatched between Ulgo and the Zabrak. A group of Sith grunts and Republics fought at the front, but before the two could reach them several consoles exploded, killing the fighters.  
Trask swore loudly, they had been his friends, and he had no time to mourn them at that moment. So they continued onward, through the door on the left of the V-shaped bridge, from the frontal view. As they passed through the door, the Zabrak couldn't shake the feeling of that there was something wrong. He was about to mention it to Trask, whom he had decided to spare for now, even if they stood for two different sides of governments, when the man suddenly said: "There is someone behind this door, I'll check out who it is." Before the Zabrak warrior could stop him, he had rushed over to the other side of the room and opened the door there, ignoring the one to his left, which probably led to the escape pods.  
No sooner had he opened the door, when another Dark Jedi appeared, wielding a double-bladed red lightsaber. The sight stunned the warrior, whom only watched numbly as Trask picked up a vibroblade and charged toward the Dark Jedi, shouting: "I'll keep him off your back, you get to the escape pods, go!" As he passed the doors he just opened, an explosion in the console to the door shut it and sealed it tight.  
The Zabrak shook himself out of his brain-dead shape, and ran into the door to his left, taking him to the starboard section of the ship, toward the escape pods.  
Well on the other side of the blast door, he quickly sealed it, and played the event that just happened in his head again. Trask had saved him, without even knowing who he was. He had given his life for a stranger.  
_He gave his life for a __Sith__, the ones he was fighting. How ironic,_ the Zabrak thought sourly. No one had ever done such a thing for him. No one, except his Master, had ever looked after him. And his Master had always been sadistic and cruel, giving pain for no reason.  
The Jedi never did such things, as far as he knew. Yet he bore that simmering hatred for them, not knowing why. He decided to come in contact with a Jedi as soon as possible, and talk to them, to try and discern whether his Master really was the best choice. He had endured the pain his whole life, yet what if the Jedi had discovered him? What would have happened then? These questions, never before seen the light of day in his head, swirled around as he tried to clear his thoughts.  
_No! I will not betray my Master. Not yet. But I will talk to the Jedi, if only to gain back my connection to the Force. Then I'll dispose of them. Besides, Ulgo's death only helped me. Now no one knows of my use of the lightsaber. But where could my own be?  
_His mind set, he began to walk along the linear corridor, when the clumsy metallic thing attached to his belt began to beep. He looked at it and frowned. It was an old communicator model, one not used in over three thousand years. It was a voice-only communicator, he realised.  
He pressed a random button, and the voice of an unknown male ringed in his ears.  
_"This is Captain Onasi. I am tracking you through the __Endar__ Spire's life systems. There is only you left of the crew. Get to the escape pods as fast as you can, but be careful. Sith troopers __are__ everywhere."  
_Then the man cut communications, and the silence settled again over the corridor.  
But the silence did not last long. After a few minutes of running, he saw a Sith soldier cut down a Republic soldier, and with glee the Zabrak rushed at the soldier, eager for combat, howling a savage war cry. The soldier, taken completely by surprise, was quickly cut down by the humming lightsaber.

The rest of the way was a trip down the alley for the warrior. The few groups of Sith he encountered were swiftly dealt with. The halls were littered with bodies, amputated in one way or another. The lust for battle drove the warrior. When the man named Carth Onasi contacted him to warn him about the group of soldiers behind a door, he ignored the man, and cut the door open with the green lightsaber.The group inside fired instantly at him, but his reflexes were fast enough to block their shots back at them, and soon they lay in a heap, smoking holes in their bodies.  
He walked past the bodies, not noticing the carnage, and opened the door on the other end of the little room.  
In the other room, containing the escape pods, stood a man by a console, who looked up, blaster pointing at the warrior, before slowly lowering it, saying with a stressed voice: "You've made it just in time! Bastila's escape pod is away, and we have to leave now, if the Sith are not to blow the ship up!"  
"Then what are we waiting for?" said the warrior calmly, and pushed himself inside the small escape pod, shortly followed by the Republic Captain.

As they jettisoned, the Captain looked up at his ship with sad eyes, murmuring: "Goodbye, beautiful." The warrior eyed him conspicuously, but the man didn't notice.  
Then an explosion rocked the escape pod, and both of the men looked up at the ship, watching the turbolasers of the other destroyer ripping it apart. Then alarms began to beep, and the Zabrak lost control of the escape pod, and it plunged down toward the planet below.

The citizens of the city block watched in awe as the escape pod swirled in, crashing into the ground, ripping up the pavements, and felling people to the floor.  
Smoke rose from the pod, as a man opened the hatch. He wheezed in the smoke, squinting his eyes to see out through it, then took the unconscious Zabrak with him, carrying the man on his back, away from the public, and down into a series of apartments.  
He walked inside, seeing and feeling the despair hanging in the air, as the aliens walked past him, all looking at him with dull hatred. He ignored them, and pushed his way through the crowd that started to gather around him, looking for an apartment to use, which he quickly found. The door stood open, and there was no one inside. He got inside, shut the door, and then put the man on a bed. There was something mysterious about the man, but he could not put a finger on what.  
As he checked the alien for any broken legs or ribs, he noticed that the whole body was covered with tattoos in black and red. Probably was the tattoos that felt so wrong about the man, he thought.  
_Wow, that must've hurt,_ he mused, before he thumped down in a chair, and slowly fell asleep, his head slightly tinting backward.

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_A/N:_ Well, this is it. The journey has started. I will follow the events of KotOR, but not down to every detail. I might skip a few things, or add weight to some other. But I will probably change a lot of the dialogue, so that it won't be exactly like KotOR, which it won't because of our mysterious Sith warrior from the future.  
This is how I interpret our "mysterious" traveler, both in thought and reaction. 


	3. Taris, Upper City

_Disclaimer: Usual stuff. LucasArts/BioWare own all characters and planets and vehicles.

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The lightsabers clashed furiously against each other, yellow and red.__Shouts from distant battles were heard, along with accompanying blaster shots and the constant humming of lightsabers, and the searing, clashing sounds. Blaster scorches littered the walls.  
__ The red blade slipped, and the yellow lightsaber plunged through the chest of the unlucky Dark Jedi. Standing above the fallen body, stood a fair-faced woman, serene and immersed in the Light Side, preparing her for her hardest battle yet, as two more Jedi approached with her, looking toward the front of the bridge._

He woke up with a start, grabbing for the lightsaber he was sure was attached to his belt, when he realized, he no longer had it on him. His tunic was also gone. His black pants with the belt were still on him, but no lightsaber. He dully noticed a bandage strapped over his stomach.  
He rose slowly from the bed he was lying on, and almost attacked the brown-haired man, dressed in a orange jacket of some kind and brown pants, sitting in front of him. The man backed off, but did not seem to be worried. The Zabrak reined in his anger and sat down slowly to show the other man that he had no hostile intentions. For the moment.  
"You must've been having a hell of a nightmare, the way you were thrashing about. I hope you are better? You took quite a beating in the crash. I carried you here, to avoid the Sith patrols" the man said, his voice underlined with some concern.  
Someone was concerned for him? That was new. He scanned the room, replying absently: "Well, I owe you my life."  
The man shook his head, saying something about not abandoning people, but the Zabrak did not listen. He only replied when he heard the man ask for his name.  
"My name is D… Maul. Just Maul."  
He managed to bite his tongue, before he said 'Darth', since he apparently fought against the Sith for the time being. _This simulation is very well done. I hope my Master will be pleased to know that I am loyal to those I serve, if he does not already know. This test is a waste of my time, but he does not think so, since I am here. But why fight for the Republic?  
_ "Maul? That's a name I have not yet heard" said the man, not noticing the almost slip that would've doomed Darth Maul, "I noticed you have a lot of tattoos, did you do them all over your body?"  
Maul answered hime casually, as if it was of no importance: "Yes. And only the black areas are tattoos. My hue is originally red."  
"Oh. I see. Well, we cannot sit here if we want to get off the planet, now can we? I scouted around a little, and for your information, we are currently on Taris, which is under Sith occupation right now. We have to find more allies, if we are to find and rescue Bastila. I'm Carth, by the way. Carth Onasi, captain of the Endar Spire" Carth said and held his hand out and shook Maul's. Maul shook it, but then stared baffled at Carth.  
"Hold on, did you say… Taris? But isn't that planet uninhabitable?" Maul asked, a sudden strange feeling lurking its way through his mind, as he assimilated the information. _No, it cannot be. I must be thinking of something else._  
Carth looked at him in surprise, saying incredulously: "No, Taris is quite hospitable, except that it is no good place to live for the poor."  
"Oh, I'm sorry, I must've been thinking about some other planet", Darth Maul said, but the gnawing feeling did not leave him; it increased, trying to tell him something, before he tried to put his mind away from it by asking: "Tell me, who is this Bastila, anyway? Someone mentioned her before, but I never understood who she was."  
Carth stared openly at him now, something which unnerved Maul.  
"Do you not know who Bastila is? She is the Jedi who killed Darth Revan, famous for her Battle Meditation!" he almost shouted at Maul, who now stared back as if he was crazy.  
"No, no… it cannot be…" he mumbled, and almost fell. He managed to lean against the wall, and in his mind he tried to deny what the man just said.  
_ No! It cannot be! Darth Revan died 4000 years ago, along with his apprentice, Darth Malak! Bastila, the one who killed Darth Revan, is also dead since 4000 years. He must be joking with me! It must be a cruel joke by my Master!_ But as he gathered his thoughts, and tried to calm down, he realized a few things that had been off from the beginning.  
_ The armour worn by the Sith troopers, I recognize it. My Master showed me pictures from one of the elder Sith Empires, and they were there. The silver armour was most used during Revan's and Makak's reign and a few years after.__ And the communicator Trask gave me, it was an older model. The same with the vibroblade he used, and the blaster pistol__ And the__ Republic__ ship, that shape has not been in use for a thousand years, there is none exist__i__n__g__ any__ longer.  
_ "I'm sorry, I'm just a bit dizzy, that's all" he excused himself to Carth, who was hovering a few meters away. He slowly rose on his feet, unsure what to do, now that he knew what time he was in. _It has to be a simulation! What else could it be? There is no way for a being to be transported four millennia's back in time! It's impossible! My Master would surely have told me if it did exist. It must be a simulation,_ he thought with a rising anxiety. Time would tell, he surmised, and mentally told himself to play along in the simulation, for he was too stubborn to believe what the man told him.  
"Very well", he began and looked at his new companion, "I guess we are stuck with each other for now. Let's go search for Bastila, and get ourselves off this rock!" Carth nodded, and put his blaster in its holster, and Maul grabbed the two vibroblades he found in one of the containers. He longed for the lightsaber, but decided against it since it would reveal his Sith training, or mark him as a Jedi, which would lead the Sith to attack them, and that was what they wanted to avoid.  
As he tested their balance with a twirl, he and Carth walked out the door, and was immediately swept up in a Sith patrol search, that was just terrorizing a pair of Duros.  
One of the Duros complained to the gray-clad Sith officer, who shot the alien blank in the chest, then began boasting about Sith supremacy. One of the droids with him acknowledged the presence of the two men, and pointed it out for the officer, who shouted: "They're Republic fugitives! Droids, attack!"  
Carth drew his blaster and began firing at one of the droids, quickly disabling it. Maul had pounced on the Sith officer, who had drawn a vibroblade when he saw the Zabrak lunge against him.  
Maul fiercely beat on the others blade, seeing the man weaken with every hit. He grinned maliciously, then easily batted the officer's sword out of the way, and lopped his head off, blood spitting out from the severed neck.  
Then he turned around, and saw the second droid fall to the ground with a fizzling noise, sparks flying from the damaged central core. Carth walked up to him, blaster at the ready, as the Duros began to speak.  
"Thank you for helping", it began with its high-pitched voice, "Poor Ixgil. He shouldn't have stood up to these Sith. It wasn't the first time they were harassing us."  
"What about the bodies?" Maul asked, pointing to both the dead Ixgil and the Sith officer. The other Duros stared unblinking at him, reassuring him that the bodies would not be found. Then the blue-skinned alien started dragging away the two bodies, leaving the droid remains for the moment.  
"We're going to need some money if we want to find Bastila" Maul said to Carth, who nodded but also asked how they would do that. Maul grinned.  
"Leave that to me." With that, he walked to the way out of the complex, with his mind set on finding a cantina.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but where's the cantina around here?" Maul asked a passing lady, dressed in silken clothes. She frowned, looking arrogantly over his clothes. Then with a snobby expression, she described the way. As a way to thank her, Maul pretended to stumble, and pushed her over the edge of the walkway. Her screams grew distant very fast, drowned out by the chattering people and vehicles in the air.  
"Oops", he muttered with a mock-excusing tone, and then sprinted away on the described way to the cantina, Carth behind him.  
He saw the entrance to the cantina a yard or two away, and was about to rush there when he overheard an conversation.  
"Davik says you missed your last payment. And he does not like it when someone is behind in payment" a young, scruffy-looking mercenary said threateningly to an old man. An Aqualish beside him growled something in his own language, which Maul couldn't understand. But he understood that the man was in danger, and that the mercenaries probably had some money on them. So while they were arguing, he went straight up to the human mercenary, knocked him on the shoulder and said coldly: "I don't think you're listening to the man. He can't pay. So why don't you two burn out of here, before I gut you, okay?" Stupid as he was, the mercenary didn't take the hint, instead he snarled: "Davik doesn't like it when people interfere in his business. Take him down!" Then he drew his blaster, and the Aqualish beside him drew a vibroblade, while Maul drew his own vibroblades. Carth who just arrived drew his own blaster, and aimed it at the human mercenary while Maul engaged the Aqualish in close combat. The alien was not as well-trained as Maul, so the fight was over quickly. With a clean slice Maul lopped the head off, while the human mercenary fell to the ground, small holes in his body armour. He then searched the bodies, and found at least 600 credits on them.The old man began to babble his thanks, and how poor he was and how he needed to pay back to Davik.  
"Who is Davik?" Maul interrupted the old man, who looked at him and answered: "Why, he is the Exchange leader here on Taris! Very powerful man! Oh, I'm so dead if I don't pay him back!"  
Maul scratched his chin thoughtfully, checking the credit chips, pondering what to do. Then he gave without a word 100 credits to the old man, who ran off, blessing him. Carth commented how thoughtful that was of him, but also that he hoped they wouldn't need those credits later. Maul shoved the remaining 500 credits to Carth, saying: "Keep these safe. I think that's enough to survive for a while here."  
Then he entered the cantina, while Carth, still chocked over the amount of credits, put them in his pockets and then followed in after Maul.

Maul took a look around the entrance "hall" and the three people in it, standing around a table, where two of the persons were playing some card game which he did not recognize. He asked Carth what it was, who answered with the word "pazaak". Frowning, Maul studied the players and marked every card, remembering the numbers in his head. The third person, a woman, leaned on the younger man eagerly and whispered encouraging words in his ears. The older man sighed wearily and put down his cards, giving up. Triumphantly the younger man scooped up the credits lying on the table, while the woman were mumbling words Maul could not make out, but that was unmistakeably seducing the man. The older man only shook his head, and sat down in a corner.  
Maul went past them, into the circular middle of the cantina, and asked a passing waiter where the duelling ring was. She pointed it out to him, while eyeing his clothes with a look of dismay and arrogance.  
Ignoring her sniggering, Maul pushed his way through the circular middle into the duelling lobby. At the far end lay a fat, ugly Hutt, which Maul surmised was the arranger of the matches. A couple argued with each other, as they had to watch the latest match at the viewscreens. Intrigued, Maul and Carth strode over to one, and saw the start of a match between Gerlon Twofingers, a middle-aged man with only two fingers on one hand, and Dead-Eye Duncan, who seemed too old to fight. As soon as the match had begun, Duncan dropped his blaster pistol while drawing it, and was rewarded by a shot to the chest by Gerlon, who was proclaimed victor of the match. The old man was dragged out and revived with a med-pac, while the winner went over to the Hutt, and was rewarded with a credit chip.  
"So what are you thinking, huh, Maul?" Carth asked the Zabrak, but Maul only shushed him, and went over to the Hutt.  
"I do not have time for misguided tourists and their whining" the slimy Hut boomed out when Maul approached him. "Unless you are here to participate in the duelling ring?"  
Maul nodded, and the Hutt laughed loudly, and in his raspy, thick voice, he said: "So, you wish to fight? Well then, we have to give you a name! How about Mysterious Stranger?"  
"Mysterious Stranger is good. How much will I earn of the incomes from the fight?" Maul asked, knowing the Hutt would try to cheat him if possible. The Hutt looked at him with his large, yellow eyes and said: "10 percent is what you will receive." Fuming with anger at the low percentage, Maul threatened: "You better make that 25 percent unless you wish to adorn these walls with your innards!"  
"I do not respond kindly to threats, Zabrak. But I will let it pass. This time. 15 percent, that's my final offer." The Hutt stared into Mauls eyes, trying to psyche him. Maul ignored it, and accepted the offer, knowing it to be a better deal than most duellists got. He was then quickly ushered to the duelling ring by the Hutt, where Duncan was already standing, up on his feet, ready for another duel. The ring was circular, rather small and coloured in a variety of gray colours, and the public was protected by some kind of security glass from any stray shots, or grenade shrapnel. Fingering his vibroblades, he dully listened to the announcer. Then the match began.  
He ran as fast as he could toward Duncan, and viciously attacked the poor man, who succumbed to the beating very fast. Not much of a match, Maul surmised. He then left the ring, and positioned himself in front of the Hutt, who quickly gave him the money. He counted up to 150 credits as a whole on the chips, and gave the money to Carth, who quickly put them away. Hesitantly, Carth whispered: "Are you sure this is a good way to earn money?"  
"Yes," he whispered back, with a confident smile. "Relax, I'm fast, I can win these duels without any problem." Lacking no confidence, he asked the Hutt to immediately put up the next match, which the Hutt readily agreed to. More fights, more credits, for both of them, the Hutt voiced aloud.  
The next one to fight was Gerlon. He wielded a blaster, like he did in his last match against Duncan, but Maul took him down easily.  
After receiving 250 credits from Ajuur, as the Hutt was named, Maul and Carth decided that they would go and search for Bastila, or clues as to where she could be.

They decided to backtrack to their "loaned" apartment, but got lost and entered an entirely differend section. Walking round the circular corridor, Maul picked up an agitated voice.  
"Look, you better tell me where you hid those uniforms, or I'll gut you myself!" A pleading voice answered: "I do not know where they are. I have no use of Sith uniforms!"  
As Maul and Carth approached the apartment from where the voices came, a Sith trooper in his shiny suit of armour said: "Back off, civilian! There is nothing here!"  
Giving in to his curiousness, Maul snarled at the guard, and shoved him out of the way. The soldier protested at first, but after one look from Maul's yellow Sith eyes, he backed off, mumbling excuses. Turning to the officer inside, he asked in a commanding tone: "What's going on here?" The officer, clad in blood-red armour, looked him over, and answered: "My Lord, this man has stolen several Sith uniforms, and refuses to give them back. I was about to torture him, May I proceed?" Maul threw a glance at the terrified Aqualish, who stared at him with his big, round eyes, silently pleading him.  
"No. You may not. Release this person. It is obvious that he knows nothing." Maul looked deep into the black-chrome visor, hoping that the man behind would back off. But the man did the opposite. He drew his blaster and said harshly: "You are no Sith! Kill him!" The last was directed at the soldier outside the apartment, who drew his vibrosword, only to fall to the ground with a large hole gaping on his chest. Maul drew his vibroblades, and stabbed his opponent in his gut. Gurgling, the man doubled over, gripping his stomach with both hands, and then landed on the floor with a thud.  
The Aqualish thanked him over and over, and then told him a piece of information that was very much worth the trouble.  
"The Hidden Beks are the ones I took the Sith uniforms for. They have their base of operations down in the Lower City. That's where you want to head, I believe." Thanking him once again, the Aqualish took off and ran away as fast as he could.  
Relieving the dead officer of his red armour, Maul forced Carth to put it on, even when Carth whined about it being ugly and would squeeze his groin too hard.  
"Oh, stop the whining already. You fit perfectly. Besides, my horns makes it impossible to put the helmet on. And I won't trim them down just for this. Behave like a soldier." Carth grumbly accepted the truth, and pulled on the Sith officer's armour with some hesitation. He then apologized for his un-military like behavior and straightened his posture and walked out the room. Before leaving, Maul made sure it looked like an accident had happened in the room. He deployed a mine in the centre of the room, pulled in the body of the other soldier, then took the discarded blaster, walked out and threw it on the mine. He jumped away from the entrance and heard the satisfying 'boom', accompanied by a slight tremor in the ground.  
"Now, let's head down to the Lower City, and see if we can find any clues there" he said calmly to Carth, who held his hands around his head, ears ringing from the explosion.

They walked out of the apartment complex, and strolled down the lively streets of Taris, pushing the few people that didn't move when they went past. Arriving by the elevator, Carth walked up to the Sith soldier that was leaving at the wall beside the elevator door. When he saw Carth, all dressed up in the blood-red armour of the officer, he straightened his posture, and opened the door without question. Then he saw Maul, who had his head bowed down in submission, and he asked with contempt: "What is this _thing_ doing here, sir?"  
His voice partly muffled by the helmet, Carth harshly spoke: "He is following me because he knows the terrain best down there. And he wishes to take revenge on some swoop member down there, and we've _promised_ to help him if he helps us."  
The soldier excused himself and returned to eye the few people that dared to go along the small corridor leading to the Sith base on Taris.  
Entering the elevator, Carth pressed a few buttons, and then quickly pulled off the Sith armour, and put it in his backpack, with the comment: "Never know if it will be needed again, you know."  
With that, the elevator began to descend down toward the lower parts of Taris, where the slum and swoop gangs reside and thrive.

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_A/N:_ Well, second chapter is up, and we're going down to the Lower City next! I wish to speed ahead of these areas, and thus describe a few areas less than others, unless they are of the utmost importance. I just want to get off Taris. ;) 


	4. Taris, Lower City Part One

_Disclaimer: Same as before. LucasArts/BioWare owns the characters in this story._

_Sorry for the long delay. School is hard right now. But the next week we're free from school in my country, which I will dedicate to this story. So hopefully there will be one or two more updates next week, starting at Monday._

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The first thing Maul registered was the incredible amount of filth that lay about. The walls were literary made of dirt and burn marks, with only a few patches of the original wall sticking out, making it seem a disease. An odour of decay clogged itself inside Maul's nose. The second thing was the clinging of metal against metal. A Nikto hurried past the crossroad-corridor section and headed into a fight between what seemed to be two rival gangs.

There was two other Niktos, and facing them was a dark-haired human, an Aqualish with oversized tusks, and a Rodian who just arrived on the scene.

"The Hidden Bek are nothing but dirt! We Black Vulcars are the ruling gang here on Taris!" the Nikto boasted loudly to the Rodian, who's trout-like mouth twitched, and then spoke in high-pitched noises: "We shall see who is the larger gang!" Then he drew his vibrosword, but before he could strike at the offending Nikto, the Black Vulcar had struck out with his electrical knife, and hit the Rodian in the stomach. A crackle emitted from the Rodian's twitching body, and then it fell to the ground, twitching wildly, smoke rising from the corpse. The Aqualish managed to hold his ground against the Nikto he was facing, slowly getting the upper hand. His strong, yet precise strikes battered at the sword of the untrained Nikto, showing his skills as he performed a swipe towards the head of his opponent, then changed direction and cut the arm off of him. Then with another perfected swipe, he beheaded the Nikto, but before he could gloat over his victory, he was hit in the back by the electrical knife of the group's leader. Grunting in pain, the Aqualish doubled over and collapsed on the floor, his life slowly ebbing away.

The human did not fair that well. His opponent wielded a vibrostaff, and even though he was clumsy, he was far stronger than the human, and swatted the attacks away. He then kicked the man in his stomach, and using the moment opened, he thrust his blade through the man's heart. Without a sound, the human fell to the ground, sword clattering out of lifeless hands. Neither Carth nor Maul had moved during the fight, not knowing which side to fight for, but it was decided for them by the Nikto in charge. He shouted: "Strangers! Kill them!"

Carth drew his blaster and fired off a few shots at the leader, who decided to target him, while Maul ran up to the vibrostaff-wielding Nikto, his twin vibroblades drawn.  
He viciously slashed at the gang member's head, who managed block it with his staff, while throwing away a kick that could break bones, but Maul evaded it and hacked away against the Nikto's limbs. Desperately the alien blocked every attack, now on the defensive, only managing to squeeze off one or two attacks against Maul's legs, which were easily deflected by Maul. He threw a quick glance over his shoulder, to see how Carth was doing.

Carth had drawn his own vibrosword, which he didn't use that often, and had engaged the Nikto head on. The little knife was no trouble for Carth's sword, which he used to swipe the knife out of the hand of his opponent, and then sliced his head off clean, in a brutal, but clumsy move.

Maul danced around the Nikto, hitting him with light but agonizing strikes, too fast for the gang member to parry. Grinning wildly, Maul played cat and mouse with the poor alien, until finally deciding that it was boring, swirled round so he faced the alien's backside, and forcefully kicked the Nikto in the back. Unprepared, the Nikto gasped as his spinal cord snapped from the powerful blow, paralyzing him instantly. He fell to the ground, unable to defend himself as Maul buried his vibroblades in his chest.

Cleaning the swords on the clothing of the dead alien, he turned to Carth, who administered a med-pac on a long cut on his left arm.

"Seems that not even you escaped unscathed," he remarked to Maul and pointed at the gash in his side. Giving a med-pac to Maul, Carth touched the small wound at his own arm, and winced at the pain."That will leave a bruise in the morning" he muttered to himself. He then assisted Maul in plundering the dead bodies for anything valuable, and asked Maul in a commanding tone: "Can you tell me where we are going next?" Maul shook his head and shrugged arrogantly. Then eyeing Carth's more roughed up clothes, he commented: "You need more protection", and pulled off the armour from the Nikto Carth had killed, and handed it to Carth, who threw away his old orange pilot-jacket and quickly put the armour on. Now more adequately protected, Carth's new armour was mostly composed of black and brown leather, with some metal covering the chest and elbow-caps.

_Maybe I shouldn't kill him, after all. He's a real asset, so far,_ Maul thought and grinned mentally. Still thinking like a Sith.

Then a problem arose. There were three ways to go. One straight ahead of the elevator, leading into what seemed to be an apartment complex, just like those in the Upper City, only slightly more roughed up. One to the right of the elevator, leading to a large door, guarded by something he could not make out. The one to the left of the elevator only went on for a few meters before making a sharp 90 degrees turn to the right. Not knowing what lay around that corner, Maul decided to search the apartment complex first, there probably would be a lot of credits in there, ripe for the taking. Carth tried to argue against it, but Maul growled threateningly, his eyes glaring determined back at Carth. Carth hastily agreed, thinking nervously: _What a nervy guy. I think I made a good judgement in not trusting him. He is definately dangerous._

Maul on his part, thought angrily: _That man better listen to me. I am the stronger fighter of us two! But there's something about him, making me suspicious. He seems to be holding something back. No matter, I'll interrogate him soon enough._

Both not knowing what the other was thinking, they went inside the apartment complex, that was, if possible, dirtier and more broken than the corridors outside. Some of the apartment doors were open, their frames destroyed, effectively keeping them open. Other doors were closed and heavily locked, for what other reason than protecting some treasure "hoard" of credits and possibly a roof over one's head, Maul could not fathom."Time for circle-walking again," he muttered jokingly and started to walk to the right. Carth followed him on a distance. Stopping by a locked door, Maul took up a blaster and shot the electronical lock repeatedly, until it gave in with a squeak, and opened the door. In the shadows, he saw a figure standing. Waltzing in, he was about to speak to the figure when it called out: "Do not move! I will not let a mere bounty hunter kill me! If you do not wish to die, I suggest you turn around, bounty hunter." The persons voice was determined and angry. Holding his hands up to show he meant no harm, Maul asked: "Now, why would I want to kill you? I don't even know who you are!"

Slowly, the figure walked out from the shadows, revealing a green-skinned Twi'lek, his clothes torn and dirty. The perfect camouflage in a dirty, shredded room. Eyeing Maul and Carth that stood in the doorway, he sourly commented: "I don't know. Nor do I know if you are trustworthy."

Carth decided that, since Maul seemed to be less inclined to speak, he would do the talking.

"Let me introduce myself. I am Carth, a human mercenary, if you will. With me is Maul, my esteemed Zabrak colleague. Who are you?" Maul bowed lightly, looking the Twi'lek deep in the eyes, while Carth attained a more neutral stance, hands behind his back.

"I am Matrik. I used to work for the Exchange, but now I am to testimony against them and their operations. However, I am, as you might understand, unable to do so, because of all the bounty hunters that are after the bounty on my head." Then the soot-covered face lit up and he asked: "But maybe you can help me? You can pretend to kill me, get the bounty, and I will still be alive to give the government my report about Davik's dealings."

Frowning deeply, Carth excused himself and turned to Maul, pointing to the corridor outside the apartment. Understanding the message, Maul walked a short distance from the apartment, with Maul close behind him.

"What should we do? We could kill him, but that would only help the Exchange. Or we could help him, and feel better, yet gain no credits. I vote for helping him, since it might aid us in turn" Carth stated heartily. Maul grudgingly agreed with him, determined not to fail the simulation, and so they went back to the Twi'lek, who at hearing the news, happily told them of the easiest way of "disposing" him.

"You will need a permacrete detonator. I believe that you can get one somewhere in the Upper City" he told them, giving them a description and a holo of the item.

Maul and Carth left the man, promising to return to help him later. Not wanting to explore the complex any further, they went back outside, this time walking toward the turning pathway.

The walkway did not have to go on for long before they encountered a Rodian who stood guard by a door with a sign reading "Javyar's Cantina" in blinking red and green lights.

"If in there you go, leave trouble at door. We no want trouble" chirped the green-skinned Rodian to them before opening the door, revealing yet another door.

_Security measures,_ Maul surmised and waltzed inside the cantina, where the first thing he and Carth saw was a short human wearing a blue-coloured vest with fur puffing up the shoulders, and a leather helmet in style with swoop riders, along with a pair of protection goggles. A orange-hued Rodian dressed in brown, ragged clothing strode up to him, accompanied by two Twi'lek twins.

"Go away!" the human spat out in a low tone to the aliens.

"What? We just want to meet big, bad bounty hunter Calo Nord" the Rodian squeaked. One of the Twi'leks snorted and sneered: "Bah, this cannot be Calo Nord! He is bigger, this one is too small."

"One." Maul knew directly when the words left the bounty hunters mouth what was about to happen. Apparently, the aliens did not. They looked at each other in bewilderment, not noticing how people shrunk back toward the unclean walls, effectively clearing the area around the three and Calo Nord. The white lights lit up half of Calo Nord's face, giving him a kind of split face, one half in darkness, the other basking in light.

"What? One? Me don't understand!"

"Two" Calo Nord counted, his hands twitching to his sides, where a pair of blasters hung.

"Is he trying to count how many there are of us?" the Rodian asked his companions, who shrugged, only wanting to brawl. Calo Nord then sharply said "Three", and threw a small object in front of the three aliens feet, who drew their weapon, but before they could shoot, Calo pressed something in his hand, playing a beep. Then the object exploded, throwing shrapnel at the aliens, smoke obscuring the scene from view. A high-pitched squeak was heard through the smoke, as well as two blaster shots and the thumps of bodies hitting the ground.

The smoke slowly dissipated, showing the scorched carcasses lying face-down on the ground and the unharmed bounty hunter that slowly walked out from the cantina, not giving anyone a look. Several of the people in the cantina made their way from the walls were they all had been standing during the short duel, and started talking again, as if nothing had happened.

Turning his head to Maul, Carth muttered fast: "We might find someone in here that knows something about the other escape pods."

"Of course," Maul said quietly. Then Carth asked, suspicion lacing his voice: "What do you think to gain from helping Bastila?"

"I believe the Jedi can help me find out what happened to me", he blurted out without thinking. Carth frowned and shook his head, disbelief scarring his visage. "Oh, what happened to you? I'm starting to believe that you're no Republic soldier after all. Sure, you've helped a few people, but you've ruined more lives than you have saved."

Making sure not to give out anything sensitive to Carth, Maul replied slowly in a long sentence: "You are quite right. I'm no soldier for the Republic. Nor am I Sith. I am a mercenary. I am just here, to learn something. And to help, of course."

"Of course" Carth mumbled, his suspicions not satisfied, but he gave up the conversation for now.

Narrowing his eyes, Maul turned to Carth and growled: "We'll talk about this mistrust-concept of yours some other time, alright?"

Gaping, Carth followed Maul with his eyes as the Zabrak walked away deeper down into the cantina, toward a large silhouette that only could be a Hutt. Maul conversed for a short time with the slug-like creature, reading something on his datapad, before bowing to the large gangster slug.

"So what's our next move, chief?" Carth asked Maul sarcastically, his hands behind his back. Before Maul could retort, he watched three armed Rodians approach a little Rutian Twi'lek girl sitting by the bardisk, who lashed out at the trout-mouthed alien troublemakers.

"I told you to leave me alone, so give me some space, bug-eye! Your breath smells like bantha poodoo!" Both Carth and Maul snickered at her sharp tounge, and watched with growing mirth the exchange between the girl and the Rodians, their mistrust of each other forgotten. Then the troublemakers reached for their weapons, and Maul was prepared to jump in there to fight, but the girl called up a shape that towered over the Rodians, that squealed in fright at the sight. The hairy creature rumbled something to the girl who chided with a comment of her own, as the Rodians left them alone. Maul wearily approached the girl, knowing that any sign of hostility might reward him with a fight against the Wookiee, which he was not particularly interested in. For even if he might be able to defeat one with the use of the Force, he probably could not now that he could no longer use the Force.

"Greetings, girl. I see you handled those ruffians rather well" Carth congratulated her. He then proceeded to introduce himself and Maul, who gave a short nod to the girl. She studied them curiously, with her liquor-brown eyes, and then asked in her innocent voice: "Say, you're not from Taris, huh? I know pretty much everyone down here, and since it is here that aliens usually live, then you must be from off-world."

"Yes, indeed we are from another place." He chuckled at her quick understanding of the situation. "We are here on a mission, but we have taken a pause from it, you could say. Could you tell us a little about the gangs around here? And who was that bounty hunter from before?"

Tilting her head to the side, she scratched her left lekku a little, before rambling up a lot of information, in a fast pace. From what he could hear, the Hidden Beks were fighting against the Black Vulcars, because of the Vulcars leader, Brejik, was an old Hidden Bek that wanted to lead the Beks but wasn't allowed, and therefore he left and joined the Vulcars and became their leader, ordering them to attack anyone that opposed them. Partially like the old Sith from the time long before his own birth, Maul thought, and then realized that it was during this time and after these years that the Sith crumbled and killed off themselves, almost. He turned his attention back to the girl, who was stroking her lekku absently, looking up in the lamps. The bounty hunter, Calo Nord, was apparently famous for having killed many persons, in impossible places. A worthy opponent, with other words.

When the girl finally quieted down, Maul said, almost kindly: "Thank you, but I'm afraid we have to go now." Disappointed, the girl nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders, clapping the Wookiee's arm affectionately, saying: "Yeah, I guess we have to go to. Come one Zaalbar." The Wookiee growled a protest, pointing at his half-eaten food.

"Stop thinking about your stomach, you can eat later. Geez. Come on, let's go to down to the sewers." Then she jumped down from the wriggly chair and walked out, the Wookiee in tow. Maul followed her with his gaze until she disappeared behind the door. Then he pointed to one of the empty rooms and walked there with Carth dragging behind.

Seating himself down by one of the round tables, he indicated that Carth should sit down as well, which he did. Looking around the not too clean room, checking for any recording devices, he voiced his current thoughts and ideas to the Republic captain."Since we are strangers on this planet, we need help, which we already know. So I think we should visit these Hidden Beks, see what they might know. They might be able to help us. I highly doubt the Black Vulcars would try to talk to us, anyway, since they attacked us immediately." Pausing slightly for breath, he scratched his itching chin, before continuing. "They also might know something about the other escape pods. I overheard some mentioning them before, but couldn't hear the whole conversation, sadly." Nodding, Carth replied: "Of course. These Hidden Beks are our best shot right now. But where do we find them?"

Maul thought for a few seconds, remembering what he saw just past the cantina before entering it. "I know where it is, I think. So, follow me, and we'll find your Bastila!" With that, he rose from his chair, and with Carth in tow, he walked out the cantina, ignoring and being ignored by the people around.

Well outside the cantina, Maul looked to the left of the entrance, and there he saw a black woman guarding a door. She was wearing a light protection armour, with the insignia of the Hidden Beks attached to her arm. When Maul approached, she sharply called out: "Hey, you! Who are you and what is your business with the Hidden Beks?"

"I was told that Gadon could help me with something, so I wish to see him" Carth replied sincerely, affectively saving Maul from having to speak any more. She eyed him suspiciously, then nonchalantly said: "Many people want to see Gadon. Very well, you can go in and see him if you wish. If you try anything, you'll have all Hidden Beks on your neck quicker than you can say 'swoop rider'."  
Unlocking the door for them, the woman stood aside, and continued to check for Black Vulcars, as Maul and Carth entered the base.

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_A/N:_ Well, this is the fourth chapter, right? Hmm, Carth's trust issues are starting to surface in a more military way now, right? Please tell me if there is anything that you think is out of place, except for Maul himself, of course. 


	5. Taris, Lower City Part Two

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything LucasArts/BioWare created._

**_Thanks to skywalker05 who proofread this chapter!_**

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A chaotic buzz filled their ears as soon as they entered the base. People dressed in the colours of the Hidden Beks walked around the base, glaring at the two newcomers. The place was less dirty than the rest of the Lower City, Maul noted. The floor was steel-grey, with a circular pattern. The walls were blank reinforced durasteel.  
But it was not the looks of the place that interested him. The man who sat across the hall was, however. Maul increased his pace and brusquely pushed people out of the way, who shouted at him in annoyance, but he continued to push his way through the throng. Finally reaching the dark-skinned man, he was halted by a Twi'lek, her tan and purple-coloured head-tails twitching, pointing her blasters at him, in level with his head.

"Halt! Who are you and what is your business with Gadon?" Maul smiled mentally, he had guessed right about who the man was. Gadon, in turn, rose from his seat and chastised the Twi'lek for her outburst.

"Calm down, Zaerdra! Not everyone who comes down here is a Black Vulcar! Besides, they wouldn't do anything in the middle of our base!" She protested, eyes flaring with anger: "You trust too easily, Gadon! He could be a Sith spy!"

Squeezing into the somewhat heated conversation, Carth objected irritated: "I am no spy! I came here for help. I was told Gadon was the one to speak to." Reluctantly, after a sign from Gadon, she lowered her blasters and said with a hardly veiled threat: "You may speak to Gadon if you want, but I'm watching you, and I'm prepared to shoot you any time." Nodding, Carth took a few steps closer to Gadon, who sat down behind his desk. Pulling out the chair across Gadon's, Maul sat down and introduced himself and Maul who stood behind Carth's chair, his arms crossed over his chest, his yellow eyes glowering at Zaerdra.

"Greetings, Gadon. I am Carth, an officer for a certain government, from the Endar Spire that met its demise above your planet", Carth said in a neutral tone. "And behind me stands Maul, a soldier for the same government. What government it is, I will not say aloud, but you can surely guess."  
Understanding the need for secrecy, Gadon nodded and said: "Greetings, then. An enemy of the Sith is my friend. I am, as you know, Gadon, leader for the Hidden Beks. And she", he pointed to the hostile Twi'lek woman who was watching them closely, "Is my bodyguard, Zaerdra." He looked at the two men, scratching his bald head, then asking: "So, what is it you want?"

"We need information, mostly. We need to know where the escape pods from the Endar Spire crashlanded."

"That's some information" Gadon commented, his artificial eyes staring at them. "They crashed in the Undercity. I cannot send any men myself right now, with the ongoing battles with Brejik's men, but there is one who can help you. Mission Vao knows the Undercity best of us all here." Zaerdra interrupted with a snort.

"Mission? Gadon, you can't be serious! She's just a kid!"

"That may be, but she and her Wookiee friend have searched every corner of the Undercity sewers."  
Frowning, Carth contemplated the uses of that kid. She seemed to be smart, but she was young and probably inexperienced.

"Are you sure there are no others than Mission Vao? I'd rather not bring along a kid, not even if she can handle a gun, into a firefight, which I probably must" he asked Gadon, who shook his head, saying: "There is no other. She is your best bet."

Leaning in over Carth's shoulder, Maul whispered angrily: "We don't need some kid helping us! We can do it by ourselves, and I'll kill anyone who crosses my path." His yellow eyes wandered over the different aliens around them, while Carth thought furiously.

"We should take Gadon's advice. Who knows, this Vao could be real smart, you know?" he replied in the same, hushed tone.  
Maul hissed aggravated, knowing that Carth would argue with him about it later. They turned back to Gadon, and Carth asked: "Do you know where we can find this Mission Vao?"

Smiling, Gadon replied soberly: "She's probably in the Undercity with her Wookiee friend, Zaalbar. But you have to get past the guard by the elevator."

"We got past the Upper City guard easily enough." Carth stated, glowering at Maul for his coldness. Gadon shook his head, the little piercing over his right eye dangling.

"The uniforms won't help you get past them. You need certain documents," his smile grew wide, and he said nonchalantly, "Which we happen to have." Carth's eyes widened, but restrained himself from jumping on the man. Instead he asked calmly: "And what would you want for those documents?"

"Well, since I have no real business down in the Undercity, and I already know of a few paths down there, you can have them, at the cost of that Sith uniform you're carrying." Gadon pulled forth the documents from under his desk, and put them right in front of Carth.

"Then we have a deal. I give you the uniform, and you give me the documents." Maul pulled the armour out of his backpack and unceremoniously dumped it on the desk. Gadon eagerly gripped it, and shoved the documents into Carth's hands. Out of curiosity, Gadon asked his new-won allies: "What is it that you are searching for down there anyway, if I may ask?"

"We're looking for a person named Bastila, a woman around the twenties," Carth said hesitantly, his grey-blue eyes fixed on Gadon, who assimilated the information. Then the older man's eyes widened slightly.  
"Bastila? Then you must go into the Vulcar base! She is being held captive by the Black Vulcars, I believe. We overheard one speaking about a 'Republic officer' they'd caught in the Undercity. And, if I remember correctly, he might offer her as a price in the swoop race that is in two days."

"How do we get in there?" Carth queried. Gadon only mentioned 'Vao' again, saying she could get them inside the base. Then he added a request: "While you're in there, could you get a prototype engine they stole from us a few days ago? It might come in handy in the upcoming swoop race. I'll reward you greatly. Plus you get Bastila back."  
Accepting the mission, Maul and Carth swiftly ran out of the base, to find the elevator down to the Undercity.

"I think we entered the wrong doors, Maul," Carth commented dryly as they walked inside the apartment complex. Maul said nothing, but continued onward, checking the doors for any certain lock.

Searching through every apartment, they fought small groups of Black Vulcars, which rewarded them with small credit chips from each dead Vulcar.

Then they finally found the right door, and as soon as they'd opened it, a large, white-haired woman harshly called out: "Who are you and what are you doing here? Speak, or I'll put a blaster shot between your eyes." Maul snarled like a feral animal, and pounced on her, thinking: _"I'll savour the pain in her eyes as she bleed to death!"_ Believing it to be an easy match, Maul did not draw his vibroblades, thus giving the woman the advantage, who threw away her pistol and drew a small knife. As their bodies collided, Maul felt the sting from the woman's jab in his gut, but he could not give in, or he would lose the fight. Murderously pounding the woman with his fists, he relished every hit that connected with her flesh. Selven managed to tear up his light armour and make small gashes along his back, but she was losing ground. She tried to bury the knife in his neck, but he caught it, then sharply twisted her hand, breaking her right wrist, causing her to cry out in pain. Vainly she tried to claw at him with her good hand, but Maul's fast and relatively strong jabs pushed her breath out. Panic gripping her for the first time, she begins to wriggle and writhe, but Maul secures his grip and punches her as hard as he can, breaking her ribs with a sound crack. Her eyes dimming, she finally releases her last breath, relaxing under the heaving body of Maul, who licks his lips in ecstasy.

"That was some fight," he muttered to himself, the rage leaving his eyes and body. Looking back at Carth, who silently watched him, he rose and removed the broken piece of armour, putting on a newer, but of the same standard, light armour.

Then he moved back to the body of Selven, took her pistols and a large credit chip of 1000 credits, along with some med-pacs. Carth muttered under his breath, and walked briskly out of the dark apartment, inhabited only by a corpse from now on. The darkness of the room and the deed just done filled Maul with a satisfaction, but it was short-lived; For once he left the room the feeling disappeared. Catching up with Carth, they left the apartment complex littered with corpses.

"There's the elevator. Now let's see if these documents work or not," Carth muttered, and began walking slow military strides. A swoop bike lay a few meters away, ripped to pieces by the turrets operated by the Sith soldier clad in a more dirt-worn armour, almost camouflaged against the hallways of dirt and rust. A Twi'lek body lay close to the speeder, charred almost beyond recognizing.

As they approached the elevator, the soldier drew his blaster and threatened: "This is restricted area! Leave, civilian, or I'll turn you into nothing more than a hole-riddled corpse." He pointed toward the dead Twi'lek, to emphasize his point.  
_  
I hope for Gadon's sake these work as advertised,_ Maul thought and pulled them forth from his backpack. Putting a certain amount of authority in his voice, he remarked coldly: "I have allowance to pass, from the Master. Move out of the way, _soldier_." The soldier took the documents and skimmed through them.  
"These looks to be in order," the man muttered, giving them back to Maul, "I'm sorry for keeping you sir, but protocol is protocol."

"Don't waste my time again." Maul sneered at the man, gave the documents to Carth and opened the door to the elevator, positioning himself inside it. Carth quickly stood beside him, in the small cramped-up elevator, and pressed the button pointing downward, and so started their descent to the Undercity.

* * *

_A/N: Yeah, took its time, but now it is here! The next chapter! The chapter after this will be up sometime in the middle of next week. Promise!_


	6. Taris, UnderCity

_Disclaimer: Copy the last disclaimer, and add it here. I own nothing. All characters and locations is owned by LucasArts and BioWare._

* * *

"Man, this place is even more run-down than the Lower City was!" Carth exclaimed astonished, as his eyes took in the sight. Maul could only agree with him, for the place looked like it had been through a rancor and then spit back up again. The tents seemed to be constructed of dirt, and the inhabitants strolled along in the dirt, all of them pale as sheets, for there was no sun. Their shoulders fell low, and they stumbled along, only casting a hasty glance on the two newcomers, before returning to their empty staring at the walls as they bumped into each other. It was eerily silent; something was wrong with them. The despair hung in the air, pressing down on Maul, trying to choke him with its life-depressiveness.  
At first no one cared about their presence, but not soon enough two persons came along, claiming they owned the elevator and that it would cost to use it. Maul scared them away with a fearsome snarl, while Carth commented sourly: "Even the beggars are trying to sham you. Unbelievable."  
Not soon after, a woman came running up to them, apologizing for the two men's earlier behaviour.

Maul grudgingly accepted the apology, and asked for the village leader, whom he believed to know more about matters of importance than this girl. She was a bit saddened to watch them go, but pointed them in the right direction. Carth thanked her shortly, and then began to walk across the small path clear of dirt with Maul slightly behind, up to the leader, a brown man, whom was also partly pale, for his skin-colour. He introduced himself as Gendar, and he was the one who lead these outcasts from society.

"Have you seen a Twi'lek girl around here? With a large, hairy Wookiee companion?" Carth asked, and sighed with relief when the man nodded.

"Indeed, she and her companion has passed here many times. I believe she did so today. I rarely speak to her, though" Gendar said, his voice old and tired. Bags hung under his eyes, and he stretched with the dexterity of an elephant. "Rukil would like a word with you, I believe. The old man right across from us." With that, he excused himself and pulled back inside his tent, closing the flap behind him. The mentioned man, Rukil, waved at them to come closer, which they did. When they got close, they saw his skin was filled with wrinkles, and a small patch of hair still grew on top of his head, white as milk it was.

"Do my eyes deceive me? Has salvation finally come? No, I cannot speak of this yet, cannot give myself false hope." Rukil's voice was raspy and croaked, fitting with his appearance. Maul had difficulty determining clothing from actual skin. His eyes were filled with a mad shine.

"I need you to do a task for me, stranger. I am Rukil, Wrinkleskin the youth call me. I am 100 years old, and have been searching for… No, not yet. I had an apprentice, whom helped me in my search. She has been lost for some time, and I fear the worst has happened to her. Please, could you help an old man and put my worries to rest?" Maul nodded his agreement, but did not say anything. As he walked away, Carth stayed behind to listen to the old man's tale.

Maul paced toward the large gate, guarded by a man, who carried a pike, but he did not seem to know which end to use, judging by the way he was holding it. A woman stood beside him and wailed to the man, but the man shook his head, refusing to do what the woman asked of him. When he got close enough to hear, he snatched up the woman's begging voice: "Please, open the gate! He is almost here!"

"I- I can't! Not with the rakghouls so close! They'll get inside the village!" the man protested weakly, his hands shaking. Stubbornly, the woman replied: "He will make it." Then she shouted to someone far outside the gate: "Hurry, Hendar! Run! I can hear it coming!" Maul walked up to the gate, knowing that he had to come out somehow, and therefore asked if the gate could be opened. The two people ignored him, as the woman tried to make the man open the gate, while he refused to listen.  
Hendar came closer and closer to the gate, and was just a few meters outside when he stopped, waiting for the gate to open.

"Open the gate! Quickly, there isn't much time!" he yelled panic-stricken. From a distance, a growling rose, growing louder for every second. Soon Maul could make out humanoid shapes running toward the unlucky man outside the gate, and quickly went over the situation in his head.

_I need to be on the other side. But I won't rescue such a worthless maggot! Should I wait until he has been killed? _He pondered for a few more minutes and then backed a few meters away from the gate, hearing the growls of the malicious creatures grow stronger and stronger. The man outside the gate was banging at the gate, but the guard refused to open and even shoved the woman away, so that she would not open the door.

"Open the gate! Please, open it, they're almost here!" Hendar shouted, his voice shrill of panic. The gate guard shook his head, and pushed Hendar away from the gate with the pike, sending Hendar to the ground. Then the rakghouls jumped on him.

Hendar screamed in pain and fright as their teeth teared into his flesh, ripping the meat right off the bone. In a matter of seconds, the screams quieted, and the only sound from outside the gate was the sound of bones being crushed and meat being devoured. The woman who had tried to reach out for Hendar cried and wailed as she ran inside a small tent close to the gate, where her mournful screams rose.

_Time to go out, then, _Maul thought neutrally, and walked up to the guard, who were staring at the rakghouls outside the gate. When the guard saw Maul, he instantly tried to block the man's path with his pike, eyeing Maul frightened.

"Don't go out! You'll be killed! And the rakghouls will get inside!" he said with a strained voice, his hands slightly shaking as he gripped the pike with whitening knuckles. Maul scoffed, and pushed the man aside, opened the gate and drew his vibroblades.

Smiling savagely, Maul stood poised as the rakghouls approached him. Their hideously deformed bobbing heads dripping saliva from large mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth, their bodies lumbering forward not unlike ape-creatures Maul had seen in his travels.

There were five rakghouls, all of them howling and hissing. As the first one got close, Maul slashed upward, cutting off its head with ease, and then jumped on the second one. He thrust one of his blades into its belly, watching the entrails drip out, and then turned to the third and fourth one, which seemed to cooperate to catch their prey. But Maul was no easy prey, which he proved by cutting off the arms of the third while slashing the throat of the fourth one. But the fifth one had passed unseen, and now pounced on Maul, landing on his back. Throwing himself on the ground, Maul used the horns crowning his head to wound the creature, which howled furiously, and bit Maul in the arm, secreting a slow poison in his body as it bit. The stench of fresh blood was heavy around the beast's mouth, the smell finding its way to Maul's nose. Maul reached out, and pulled the creature off his back, and plunged one blade into the creature's heart. With a gurgle the creature died, bloodied fangs bared.

He slowly fell to his knees, supporting himself with his unwounded arm, as Carth rushed out and grabbed him, pulling him into the village again.  
The guard tried to approach Maul, but when he got close, Maul took one of his vibroblades and pressed it against the man's throat, growling at him. Taking the hint, the guard ran away as fast as he could, to avoid Maul's wrath.

"That's a nasty bite there, hero" Carth said dryly and indicated both the wound and the dead rakghouls. Maul merely growled and applied some kolto to the wound, hissing from the sting. Taking some clothes from the backpack, he made some bandages that he tied around the wound.

"I'm ready. Now, we search for that girl of yours," he commanded and dried his blades on a cloth-scrap.  
Not more than a mere few meters outside the gate, they ran into a sobbing Mission, who frantically began to pull at their clothes, wailing: "You have to help me! No one else is going to help me, even the Beks won't help me! But you'll help me, won't you? I can't just leave him there!"  
Grabbing the panic-stricken girl, Carth held her firmly in place and said soothingly: "Calm down, Mission! What's wrong?"

Tears running down her face, Mission calms down long enough to say that Zaalbar has been captured by Gamorrean slavers, who apparently had been waiting for some time for them to walk into their trap. Then she started crying again, falling into Carths's arms, who held her lightly, whispering encouragingly into her ears. Maul watched as Carth slowly eased away Mission's tears, and realized that he did not understand the complex feelings that emanated from the two.

_My Master always said that affection was harmful, that it leads to weakness. I realize now the truth to that statement. Sitting huddled against each other, with enemies close-by, is not the safest thing to do_, Maul mused as Carth patted the girl's back, her crying finally subsiding.  
Releasing her, Carth looked her in the eye, and then said: "We'll help you find Zaalbar, if you can help us get inside the Vulcar base? Deal?" He stretched out his hand, which she clasped, affirming the deal. Maul scowled at putting his fate in a girl's hands, but did not voice his opinion. Instead he pushed the thought to the back of his skull, promising himself to deal with it at another time.  
Then the three of them began to walk, with Mission leading the way. She pointed out a few 'landmarks', in case they would get separated. The wind blew casually, whispering to them.

Suddenly, a group of Sith soldiers, led by one in a crimson-red version of the soldier armour appeared and approached Maul and his allies.

"Civilians? Down here? You better turn around now, or things might get nasty. The rakghouls are vicious!" the leader said to them, but Maul once again flashed his documents, hissing: "My Master gave me all right to be here, soldier. Don't get in my way, or you'll not live to see the next sun-rise on this planet." He put his hands on the vibroblade hilts, to convey his seriousness.

"Oh, I see. Are you here to search for the other patrol? They got lost somewhere south of here. I wish I could go search for them, but my orders stands, even if it means leaving another patrol to die!" the sergeant said furiously. Then he fumbled up a syringe from his pocket, and gave it to Maul, who looked at it questioningly. Seeing his confused look, the sergeant explained: "That is a rakghoul serum. It can cure you if you get infected with the disease. The disease spreads through wounds, so be careful out there." With that, the sergeant and his men left them standing, disappearing toward the village. When they were out of sight, Maul removed his bandaging, and jabbed the syringe into the wound, feeling the icy fluid spreading in his blood, cleansing him from the disease he contracted earlier. Checking the syringe, he saw that there was still enough for two more persons, and then put the cork back over the needle and gave it to Carth, who didn't say anything about what Maul just had done. Luckily, Mission had not noticed, so she only motioned the two adults to follow her.

As they got closer to the entrance to the sewers, Maul noticed a mangled body close-by, grabbing in one hand a datapad. Curious, Maul strode over to the corpse, and removed the datapad. Reading a short snippet of the data stored on the pad, Maul did not hesitate to put it in his backpack.

"Look for datapads, might have some information" he commanded Carth with a cold tone. He then climbed down the rusty ladder leading down to the old sewers.  
Mission was already down, impatiently tapping her foot against the floor, arms crossed over her small chest.  
"Could you two hurry it up?" she called up to them, which was answered by Carth's gruff reply: "Calm down, kid, we're on our way!"

"I am no kid!" she muttered to herself and turned away from the ladder, staring out over the circular room with the old water drains intact, with several Gamorreans, who luckily hadn't discovered them yet. Then a thud beside her made her yelp in terror, and quickly turned round to be faced with Maul's emotionless face. She slapped him lightly across his face, reprimanding slightly: "Don't scare me like that! It's not funny!" Maul fought down the urge to hit her back, knowing that they still needed her, and that a hit from him would be lethal for her. A few seconds later a grumpy Carth came down the ladder, drawing his blaster when sighting the Gamorreans.

He looked questioningly at Maul who nodded and drew his vibroblades, charging with reckless abandon toward the pig-like creatures. Carth tried to push Mission behind him, but she drew a small hand-blaster and began to fire at the Gamorreans, which earned her a mutter from Carth, who fired his shots with far more precision than her.  
Knowing Gamorreans to be clumsy but strong, Maul had no problem defeating the group of Gamorreans, partly because of the blaster bolts that slowed them down, of not taking then down immediately. Those that had been unlucky enough to reach Maul, had been slashed apart by his ferocious attacks.

Cleaning his blade on a cloth taken from a Gamorrean, he motioned the other two forward, as he walked around the large hole in the middle of the circular room, where water from old draining pipes still fell down into the unknown below. The sound was almost deafening.  
Knowing that it would be hard to discern any sound in the vicinity of the 'waterfall', Maul slowed down his pace, and straining to hear anything else than the rushing sounds from the falling water.

Judging from the lights fastened to the walls that were blinking in and out of existence, and the many corpses strewn across the halls, Maul surmised that people once had been surveying the equipment in the sewers, to prevent major malfunctions.

A few growls from behind a door alerted Maul to the presence of rakghouls, so he hastily drew his weapons, kicked the rusty door that fell from its hinges, and slaughtered the five rakghouls in the room, that did not have time to react. Then something caught Maul's eyes. A deactivated droid posed in the centre of the room, a combat droid, judging from its appearance. Two blasters were mounted on the large, bulky head, which rested on a smaller frame containing the pistons driving the four legs mounted on the sides of the small metal-frame. A smaller door across the room yearned for Maul's attention, so when Mission and Carth entered the room, he gestured toward the droid, and crossed the distance between the door and himself. This door was slightly more durable than the one he just kicked in, so he drove one of the vibroblades between the door and the wall, and pushed the blade until he could get his fingers, at which point he pulled the door open, his muscles complaining at the unjust treatment, as the door principally had merged with the wall, rust falling off in pieces.

Making a crack big enough for himself, Maul pressed through, and entered a small storage chamber, rusty and leaking. Water droplets fell on his face as he approached a shrivelled body lying in the middle of the chamber, with a large bag pressed tightly to its chest. The mummified person had been a woman, and had been lying there for a year, at the most. Ripping the bag from the corpse's arms, he opened it, and pulled out some old med-pacs, and another journal. He put the journal beside him and then turned the bag upside-down, shaking it, to see if there were other items in it, but only dust came out of the bag. Frustrated, he threw the bag into a corner, took the journal, and pressed himself out the door again.

Mission squealed with delight as the combat droid activated itself, and continued to tinker with it. She managed to make it patrol the area, and shoot at anything that was alive, except for the three of them, and Zalbaar. The droid soon scampered off with loud clunks and disappeared from sight. After a few seconds, they heard blaster shots, and whimpering sounds.  
"It worked!" Mission stated triumphantly, while Carth nodded, saying: "Good work, kid."

Immediately she turned on him and said hotly: "I am no kid! What, you think I can't survive out there without Zalbaar? Well, let me tell you mister, I can take care of myself. And I am no kid! I am 14 years old."

"Whoah, calm down there, lady. I try to give you a compliment and you go into a childish tantrum!" Carth retorted, slightly offended by her attitude. Mission almost exploded in fury at the last comment.

"Tantrum! Look, mister, I'm no kid! I don't need to take this!" Carth sighed frustrated, and bit back: "And I sure as hell don't need this. Look, let's just drop this now, alright?"  
With growing irritation, Maul looked at his two companions, and then stalked out the room, while the two arguers followed closely, both avoiding looking at each other as best they could. Maul took a sharp right, knowing that the droid had taken that way and probably cleared it from a few enemies. The droid could no longer be heard, but traces of the skirmishes it had been in lay clearly in front of their eyes in the narrow corridor. Smoking bodies of rakghouls and two Gamorreans were the first victims of the droid.

Then Maul heard something; A low growl, like that he had heard many times before from creatures in imprisonment, that had been free before and only wanted to get out. But apparently the others in the group did not hear it, for they did not react to it. Maul followed the growl a few meters, stopping before a door. Drawing his vibroblades, he tried in vain to beat the door's lock, until Mission ran up and picked it, sparing his vibroblades, that already were rather dull from all of the hits in metal and bone they had delivered.  
The green-shimmering door quietly opened, swallowed by the wall, giving Maul and his friends an advantage over the Gamorreans across the room, all facing away from the three newcomers. There were five of them, two carrying different axes than the other Gamorreans. They were more beautifully carved, and seemed to have a different balance than the ordinary clumsy Gamorrean axes.

Maul removed a grenade from his belt, a red-coloured plasma grenade, activated it and waited till it were only a few second left of the detonation time. He then threw it, grinning maliciously when the plasma grenade exploded right in the faces of the Gamorreans, ripping their bodies apart, adorning the rusty brown-coloured, water-damaged sewer walls with pink entrails and gore. Mission bent down and wretched at the sight, while Carth only seemed slightly rubbed by the sight. Maul, however, enjoyed the sight, part of him wishing that he could've bathed in their fear and pain as he had when the Force still had been with him.

Then a loud roar made Mission look up, still partly green-coloured around her cheeks, and she shouted happily: "Zaalbar!" She quickly rose up, ran through the remains of the Gamorreans and opened the old door across the room, and was quickly shoved up in Zaalbar's mighty and hairy frame, as he merrily grunted and growled. Mission squirmed in his grasp, and pointed at Carth and Maul, saying excitedly: "Of course I didn't abandon you! These two helped me find you again!" Surprise could be seen in the eyes of the Wookiee, before he put Mission back on the ground, then howled and grunted at the two men, neither of them understanding what he said. Then Mission came to their rescue, and repeated what he had said in Basic.

"He says he will swear a life-debt to you", she said to Maul, who muttered in irritation. "Do you know what that means? That's the most solemn vow a Wookiee can make!" Her last statement was a surprise to Carth, who still didn't quite understand what was going on.

"I have no need for a life-debt!" Maul growled to the Wookiee, who stubbornly shook his head and repeated the same grunt as before.

"Wow, he's serious about this. Well, I guess you're stuck with me too, then."

_Well, if nothing else, they could be useful, and if not, they can be cannon fodder. So some use I'll get out of them,_ Maul thought calculatingly. Any tool that can be used, should be used, until it is completely spent and useless, his Master said. And he'd always been right, so Maul stuck to the old man's advice, for it was one of the things that kept him sane.

"Now, I guess I still owe you a way into the Vulcar base, huh? That was the deal. Don't worry, it is not far from here. Follow me!" Mission began to run, but then hesitated and added weakly: "Oh, I almost forgot. There is a rancor that guards the entrance. I can sneak past it, but I'm not sure about you three." She looked pointedly at them, especially  
Zaalbar, who barked offended at her.  
When no one said anything else, she sprinted away, trying not to stare at the entrails that slowly slipped down the walls, leaving large slimy paths on the rusty metal texture.

"Well, this is the place", Mission commented as the group stared at the pulsating, humming blue energy field. She quickly entered a code into the small computer panel beside the field, and soon enough the field flickered and died off. Behind it, was a large two-part door, with no lock, so the group of four entered it silently, with Maul now again leading the party forward.

* * *

_A/N:_ I finally added this chapter! I won't be able to write anything next week, though, so it might take a while. I've started the next chapter, so I might have something to give in two weeks time. Don't worry, I won't let this story fall down into the dust. I can't, not now. I've put more energy into this story than any other story before. I've never really written a story with such fanaticism.  
I can't write anything next week, because a group of Spanish students will come to us in an exchange, and live with us for a week. I won't have time to sit by my computer and write. They will arrive on Sunday, in the evening.


End file.
